(Newser)
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A worker at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been arrested and charged with stealing data on US dams, which Dayton Daily News reports carries "deep security implications" for the nation's power grid. Xiafen "Sherry" Chen has also been accused of lying to federal officials about her activities. She faces up to 25 years in prison, Reuters notes, along with $1 million in fines. According to an FBI press release, Chen "illegally accessed restricted areas" of a federal database and "downloaded sensitive files from the National Inventory of Dams" in 2012.

Last year, Chen, a hydrologist who works in Wilmington, Ohio, allegedly provided investigators with false information. Also in 2013, US officials reported hacking into a database in question, allegedly by Chinese government spies, the Daily News reports. The National Inventory of Dams contains power-grid information, including thousands of dams nationwide whose failure could result in economic loss or loss of human life, the Daily News notes. As to any links between the cases, "you can draw your own conclusions; I can't comment on that," says a federal prosecutor. Chen, who was arrested at work, is said to be a naturalized US citizen.

I correctley assumed it was a Chinese person when I read the headline.

Ezekiel 25:17

Oct 23, 2014 8:56 AM CDT

Like I've been saying all Chinese people in the USA who have family in China even if naturalized US citizen are still required by Chinese law to report back anything they know to party representatives. When Chinese visitors come to the USA they must sign papers with party officials prior to them getting a passport. They cannot get a passport to leave China without agreeing to provide specific information. If they are going to work for a US company like Boeing, Northrup, Devon, GE, IBM, etc the that's an added bonus for the party as it means a lot of technology secrets are going back to China. You ever wonder how China's entire war machine changed from Russian to American in the late 90's? It was simple espionage and they walked right through the front door. Old Chinese war devices still had the Russian language instruction panels on them. You can see them at museums in their major cities. Then when the data started flooding into party offices, the new machinery became all American. So in a way, some day, our own weapons of war will defeat us. Maybe that's a better explanation of the oft quoted urban legend of us being defeated from the inside.